EUGENE POTTER.
Eugene Potter, a general farmer and stock raiser of Douglas township, this county, who owns eighty acres of land in that township, was born on June 2, 1851, in New York, the son of James and Delia Potter, both natives of the Empire state. James Potter owned a farm of one hundred acres in New York state and was there engaged in farming until his death. He and his wife were the parents of nine children, of whom seven are still living, Laura, Dwane, Eugene, Fayette, Beavel, Alice and Eliza, all of whom, except Eugene and a brother at Coon Rapids, Iowa, live in the state of New York.
Eugene Potter's educational advantages were limited, as he was compelled to quit school at the age of fourteen and to engage in work on his father's farm, where he remained until reaching his majority, when he began working by the day in a saw-mill. After engaging in this occupation for seven years, he went to Illinois, where he engaged in farm work for one year, at the end of which time he came to Iowa, locating in Shelby county, and there worked for two years on various farms. After his marriage, in 1884, he rented a farm in Shelby county, on which he lived for three years and then purchased eighty acres in Douglas township, this county, for which he paid twenty-three dollars an acre. The farm, which is located in section 15, has been improved with an investment of approximately three thousand dollars. Although Mr. Potter feeds some grain, the most of it he sells direct to the elevators in his neighborhood. He sells a few cattle and a few hogs each year.
In 1884 Eugene Potter was married to Katie Johnson, the daughter of David Johnson, of Shelby county, and to this union four children have been born, Grace, Lester, Ralph and one who died in infancy. Lester married Neola Reynolds and lives south of Coon Rapids, this state. He and his wife have one child. Ralph is farming the home place and Grace also lives at home.
Mr. and Mrs. Potter attend the Evangelical church. Mr. Potter is a Republican, but has taken little active interest in political matters. He is devoted to the interests of his home and his family and has lived to rear a family of children to useful lives. Mr. Potter has been a just man and has never exacted in friendship or business more than he was willing to grant to his neighbors. By his early toil, he has gained for himself a comfortable home, which, when his productive years have passed, he will be able to enjoy in calm security.
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Transcribed from History of Audubon County, Iowa Its People, Industries and Institutions With Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records of Many of the Old Families, by H. F. Andrews, editor, Indianapolis: B. F. Bowen & Company, 1915, pp. 541-542.
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